New membership fees
Chebucto Plus (Individual)..........................................$125.00 per year
Chebucto Plus Family.................................................$165.00 per year
Non-Profit Premium (Organization)...........................$150.00 per year
For-Profit Premium (Business)..................................$200.00 per year
Family Sustaining (legacy, no longer offered)..........$225.00 per year
Chebucto Wireless Node Hosts will now pay $75 per year with $150 deposit on equipment. Node Host memberships have to be approved in advance by the Chebucto Office.
The fee increases come at a time when new membership signups are at an
all-time low while many existing members are closing their accounts to
move to commercial highspeed services. Chebucto Community Net receives no
funding other than membership fees and tax-deductible donations. The
quality of Chebucto services has done nothing but improve with less
resources to work with each year for the past several years now. The irony
of the situation is that while the need for Chebucto Community Net
services is on the rise, as prices go up and the purchasing power of those
on fixed incomes erodes, the lack of resources for public relations
means that many of these individuals, families and community groups have
no idea that Chebucto Community Net even exists.
That Nova Scotia's oldest running Internet Service Provider has successfully developed, tested and has in active operation a new kind of non-profit highspeed service unlike anything being run anywhere else, run by the community itself with its own resources, bringing free access to local and government web-based resources and a third, more inclusive Internet option in a two-provider town is not news is fairly astonishing on the face of it, but that's what has happened.
The Chebucto Wireless project is an ambitious design to bring secure low-cost high-speed wireless internet access to Metro residents. There has been interest in the project from community nets and other groups across Canada.
There has been zero development money from any outside source. All work on the wireless project has been in addition to the regular technical maintenance that Chebucto requires to keep operating.
The Chebucto Community Net now brings non-profit high-speed Internet to the metro Halifax area with a mesh network of wireless nodes hosted by users themselves.
Chebucto Wireless offers free public access to local metro and government websites and full Internet access to Chebucto Plus level memberships, currently $100 per year for individuals. This rate is set to rise $25 November 1, 2008, see story above.
The areas to be served by the new wireless access will be determined by the residents of metro themselves. There's a map here.
Chebucto is looking for residents able to host wireless nodes, the
cornerstone of the network, and when we get enough nodes in a
neighbourhood, we can look at bringing network access where it is needed.
A node sign-up form is online
here.
Users of Chebucto's text-based interface now have an extra service, activated this past week. In the text-based PINE email, selecting a web page address in an email will open up the Lynx text-based web browser and display the page while keeping the PINE session open in the background. When the user has finished looking at the web page, they can press "q" to quit the Lynx session and will find themselves back in PINE looking at their email.
Extra UPS (uninterruptible power supply) backup batteries have been installed for longer systems uptime during power outages. Chebucto services now have an uptime of about an hour during a total power outage, with some services able to stay online even longer than that, up from ten to fifteen minutes uptime previously.
In active development is support for SFTP encrypted file uploading and downloading. While it is possible to securely upload and download files using the File Manager in Chebucto's Webmail service, most webmasters on Chebucto use regular FTP, which sends username and password information as plain text.
Chebucto users are warned that there are email scams where users are asked
for their passwords and other personal information. No matter whom the
email says it is from or why they say they need the information, these
emails are always a lie. Real organizations do not require you to send
them confidential personal information over email. For more information on
these sorts of scams, tips to help you recognize these scams and resources
to help you find out more, see this Mousepad
column about spear-phishing, yet another in a long line of
scams through email designed to snag the unwary.
Our RSS feed is our way of letting people know fast about important software updates and security alerts as well as new developments at Chebucto. Stay informed with the news as soon as we have it ourselves with our RSS news feed.
Web browser: Mozilla Firefox free from Mozilla.com
Current version for Windows 2000, XP, Vista: 3.0.3
Current version for Windows 98, ME, and later: 2.0.0.17.
Support for Firefox 2 ends December 2008
Email client: Mozilla Thunderbird free from Mozilla.com
Current version: 2.0.0.17.
All-in-one web browser, email client,
web page editor: Mozilla
SeaMonkey free from
Mozilla.org
Current version: 1.1.12.
Anti-Spyware Software:
Free anti-virus programs for home users (Note that both of these programs also have paid versions which offer additional features):
FTP Software: FileZilla free Client Version from FileZilla.SourceForge.net
RSS Newsfeed Reader: RSSOwl free from RSSOwl.Org
SSH Client: Putty free from Simon Tatham
The Chebucto Office does not recommend using the Internet Explorer web browser for any use except for accessing Microsoft's own Windows Update page. The popular web browser has been repeatedly successfully targetted by virus writers in particular seeking to break into home computers to use them for criminal purposes such as sending out spam, sending out viruses to break into other computers and being used to disrupt services on other computer systems.
After many reports about vulnerabilities for Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express email programs, and the constant stream of user complaints about randomly altered program settings and difficulty using the program, the Chebucto Community Net Office and the Chebucto Technical Committee recommend our users do not use either Outlook or Outlook Express as their email program.
Keeping Microsoft Windows up to date is also very important. Windows XP users should have Service Pack 2 installed. All Microsoft Windows users should make a point of using Internet Explorer to visit the Microsoft Windows Update site at least once a month and download all critical updates.
![[Photo: Cool Chebucto hat - click to see larger photo]](http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Newsletter/Beacon/img/hat-big.jpg)
We have available these excellent quality Chebucto
Community Net hats. Click on photo to see larger version. These
fashionable stone coloured washed cotton Chino twill hats are low fitting
with adjustable strap and antique silver ring buckle for a perfect fit
and are embroidered with the Chebucto Community Net logo and web address.
Machine washable and drip dry with a pre curved peak, this hat will
provide years of comfortable wear as well as showing your support for
Halifax's own one-of-a-kind independent Community Net.
You can get your very own Chebucto Community Net hat from the Chebucto office for $20 or we can mail it out to you for an additional $10.
Go to the Beacon
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